Disney have revealed that Mufasa and Scar are not brothers in 'The Lion King'

It seems as though barely a day goes by without some precious childhood memory being trampled on, or our passions of the past derided by those "too cool for school" individuals who presumably never enjoyed anything as simple as Thomas the Tank Engine in their tedious youth.

Few things hold such a precious place in my now cold, cynical heart than The Lion King.

Often was the day that I envisaged a heady future in which I would be king like Simba, prancing around the savanna with blithe abandon, singing my happy song of royal birth. Sadly, unlike Simba, I have had no such honour bestowed upon me, and have looked on, aghast and envious as several other princes have been born, as if rubbing salt into my still open wounds.

Credit: Disney

It would seem, though, that not even my undying love for The Lion King can remain untainted, as shock news permeates the animal kingdom that will change the way you watch the undeniably brilliant movie forever.

In case, by some miracle, you are unfamiliar with the seminal work that is The Lion King, Mufasa is, at the kick off, the eponymous king, ruling over the animal kingdom with a firm but fair mantra. His son, Simba, therefore should be next in line. That is, except for the dastardly Scar, Mufasa's brother who himself has delusions of royalty, and so plots to overthrow Mufasa, scare off Simba, and claim the crown for himself.

Except, there's a detail somewhere in there that is no longer correct, because Disney have now advised that Mufasa and Scar were not, in fact, brothers. As director and producer Rob Minkoff and Don Hahn explained recently;

"There was always this thing about well, how do you have these two [male] lions?"

“Occasionally there are prides that do have two male lions, in an interesting dynamic because they’re not equals. One lion will always kind of be off in the shadows."

Hahn expands;

"We were trying to use those animal truths to underpin the story so we sort of figured Scar and Mufasa couldn’t really be from the same gene pool.

"In fact, that’s what [Scar] says. There’s a line, he goes, ‘I’m from the shallow end of the gene pool.’"

Credit: Disney

And there it is. Right there. Another childhood dream trampled on with the force of a herd of elephants. As if there wasn't enough turmoil and strife occurring on a regular basis in real life, now it would seem to be open season on our favourite movies, too.

Perhaps it is testament to The Lion King that, after all these years, a small detail from the film can garner such an emotional response from all of us who grew up loving it, and, frankly, Scar is still one of the best villainous characters ever created, and Mufasa's death left a permanent scar on me (sorry) that still hasn't full healed.